My First Month as an Inbound Marketer

So I made it through the first month of my first job (ok I did have two weeks of holiday inbetween but I still feel like this is an achievement). A job that, three months ago, I didn’t think I had a hope in hell of getting, in an industry that, to be honest, I didn’t really know existed. My experience of inbound marketing was zero, but not only have I managed to survive this first month, I’ve learned a lot and grown a bit too.

I wanted to write this piece not only to give other inbound trainees reassurance (you’re not the only one wondering what an MQL is honestly), but to encourage any graduate of any degree to think outside the box as to where the skills you’ve learnt could take you.

But first, I need to confess. I totally cheated in getting this job, at least I feel like I did. Mid-May, I was sweating over last minute revision with undelivered cover letters at my elbows. Like a lot of soon-to-be graduates, I had no idea what I was going to do post-exams. In fact, I was trying not to think about it.

Then a message popped up on my LinkedIn profile.

I’m not going to lie, I thought it was a con at first. I’d never even heard of the company, never mind the guy that owned it. Plus, his name was ‘Strange’. You could forgive me for being suspicious.

After some rapid background checking via LinkedIn and other social media, I decided that it was a legitimate request and decided to respond.

Then I waited about an hour. When nothing came I thought “oh well, never mind, it was nice being head-hunted while it lasted”. Then came this.

Stranger and strangerer.

I’m not going to lie; I was still a bit sceptical about the whole thing. Even if this was a legitimate head-hunt, flattering as it was, I thought, there was no way I could have a career in marketing. Typing up press releases, handing out flyers, and desperately sweating over a sign-up list at the Unusual Vegetable Appreciation Society conference. No thanks, I’ll pass. But then, something pretty remarkable happened – Mr Strange sent be a job description.

No mention of a press release in sight. Was this really marketing at all, I thought. To me it looked like writing and social media sharing, both of which I had done before during my time at student and regional newspapers. Some of it I didn’t understand, ‘marketing automation workflows’, ‘Google Ad-words’ – beats me buster, but I thought it might be worth a shot.

If a man called Mr Strange thought I could do it, then perhaps I should believe I could too.

We arranged an interview and that was that. I was shamefully relaxed about the whole thing. It was too good to be believed. If I got this job I could stay in Leamington with my friends, continue playing rugby and working at theatres and not have to return to the opportunity-less hell-hole that was Derby.

It wasn’t Huw Edwards ringing me after an unfortunate bike accident and offering me his place on the 10 ‘o’ clock news, but it was the next best thing.

The day of the interview came. I was pretty drained from having to write three essays and revise for two exams in three weeks at this point, so I had little energy to prepare for it or even worry about what might happen.

When I spoke to my Mum about it I’d shrug my shoulders and say “Well, if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Plus, it can’t be any worse than the interview at the Daily Mail.”

A short intermission: The Daily Mail Interview

Imagine a short, curly haired northerner walking into the glass paned walls of the Daily Mail London HQ. She’s trying to balance a 30cm wide portfolio under her arm whilst tottering in new heels and a pencil skirt (it was the Daily Mail, I was shamelessly hoping that if not talent, a company culture of misogyny would pull me through), sweating from too much coffee and a two-hour commute. She’s come for an interview for their trainee journalist position.

She sits on the plush sofa, looking up at the offices like a bush-baby in a spotlight, when the other candidates enter. Cool, calm and crisply suited, carrying slimmer portfolios and a lot less bags, they looked so much more professional than she did.

“Oh god,” she thought, “this is going to be a disaster I am totally f…”

“So which University do you come from?” another candidate has taken pity on her.

“Err…err. Warwick” she says whilst filling out a questionnaire on the latest news. Whilst she’d been researching the migrant crisis, this questionnaire wanted to know the name of David Bowie’s posthumous album.

“They don’t do a masters in journalism do they?” the other candidate asked with raised eyebrows.

“No, no, I’m just finishing my undergrad degree in English.” The other candidate’s eyebrows raised more. “What is it you do?”

“Oh, I’m at City doing a masters in journalism, we all are.”

She looks round at the other candidates. They all knew each other’s names, and were talking about the same coursework. They were all at City doing a masters in journalism.

“I’m totally fucked.”

“Catherine Lyon, do you want to make your way up to the interview room?”

She winds up the glass stair case, winding herself up to breaking point. She puts her bags down, takes a deep breath.

“They’re ready for you now.”

She coughs, straightens her shirt. Attempts to pick up her portfolio, drops it, scrabbles to pick it up. “Fucking thing”. Straightens herself up again and walks towards through the door in to a blinding white light…

Ok there was no blinding white light but I don’t really want to talk about what happened next. A combination therapy of cider, crisps and Kleenex has helped me to get over it, and now I’m over it. But be assured, no interview could go any worse than that did.

And when Mr Strange answered the door of the office, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be an interview like that one. Especially when I saw that they had an office dog, Maisy. You can’t go wrong with a company that has an office dog. I just hoped that she liked me, if the dog didn’t like me I’d have no hope!

Turns out she did like me, and so did the others. Despite the fact that I felt I was talking a lot more than they were. Asking them questions while they sat back and answered them, I got a phone call 15 minutes after I left to say they were offering me the job.

I still have the message saved on my answerphone. And I’m still here, a month later. They haven’t fired me yet so it must be a good sign. And they’re letting me write on their blog so that must be a better sign. But that’s not to say I haven’t had some challenges, particularly when it comes to the technical side of things.

In fact I’m famously untechnical amongst my friends. I tried a Kindle once and couldn’t bear the fact that you couldn’t sniff the pages. I still used Internet Explorer up until two months ago. How was I going to cope with SEO, analytics, Hubspot?

I started to panic before my first day. Chuck me in a newsroom with shouting editors, screaming phones and a computer with terrible connection or at the scene of a fire to take pictures and grab people for interviews and I’ll cope. But could I actually make a landing page? Optimise something for SEO? Could I even write the way that these guys wanted me to? I wasn’t so sure.

Challenge #1 - Hubspot

So many tabs, so little time. As soon as I sat down in front of Hubspot I thought I was never going to get through it. Not only did I have to know how it worked, I had to be certified in it as well. The ‘social’ bit I could just about get a grip on, but lead scoring? Workflows? Maybe it was time to put my hands up, I was a fraud.

What I’ve learnt: Thankfully for me, Hubspot is quite intuitive, even geriatrics like me can get hold of it and build things. And actually, I quite enjoy it. It’s also helped that from the start I’ve been encouraged to ask questions, or ‘shout up’ as they call it here. Unlike my IT teachers, these guys don’t make me feel like a dunce, put on a pointy hat and sit in the corner.

I’ve still got a long way to go, I haven’t even approached workflows yet and still don’t really understand how the SEO optimisation bit works. But, as I keep getting told, some things just take time to learn.

You just have to play with Hubspot to get a thorough knowledge of it, and I’ve been encouraged to do so from the start. For any trainees that are struggling, I’d encourage them to ask questions, lots of questions. It’s better to ask than not know and shit yourself when you’re asked to do something later. Hubspot’s own tutorials are also pretty good.

Challenge #2 – The language

You could do a PhD in marketing lingo and someone will walk in with an acronym that you don’t know. At the beginning I often sat glazed over and pretended to understand, but in the end I just gave up and asked. I’ve got over feeling like an idiot pretty quickly here.

What I’ve learnt: Again, ask questions. You’ve got to understand what people are talking about, and there’s no marketing dictionary as of yet. It’s alright if you’re on a holiday and you don’t know Greek, but you can’t work in a place where you don’t know what they’re talking about.

Challenge #3 – Marketing Knowledge

There’s so much to learn and, it seems, not a lot of time. You could sacrifice hours of your working day to learning about SEO, or when to post on social media (every article I’ve ever read comes to a different conclusion) but you’ve actually got to get stuff done during the day.

What I’ve learnt: Ask your colleagues what they read, they’ll know where to look for good resources on particular topics. I have signed up to a lot of blogs in the last few weeks, (top tip, before you sign up to ANYTHING, make sure that you have sorted your inbox out to separate blog updates from important emails, you can see how to do this with Gmail here) including some random ones like UrbanDaddy which, though they have nothing to do with B2B, send out some seriously awesome emails.

Luckily I’m a compulsive reader and don’t mind spending an hour before bed time reading up on stuff. I’d recommend spending at least an hour a day reading blogs and other bits and pieces, it’s really helped me to understand what’s going on and where the industry is heading.

Challenge #4 – my writing

I didn’t know anything about the clients when I got here. How could I be expected to write for them? I didn’t know their products, their writing style or even how they spelt things. I had no set format to fall back on like I did for news writing AND they wanted me to be creative and original…

What I’ve learnt: Don’t panic. Knowledge about clients takes time to learn. Just think about who they are trying to target with their content and write for them. There are lots of added extras too, like getting personal and expressing yourself. This applies even if you’re talking about CAD software, or something equally dry. It’s a difficult skill, one that comes with practice and one which I’m still trying to get right.

One habit that I have managed to break is distancing myself from my writing. After years of essay-writing and academic reading, slipping back into jeans-and-t-shirt writing was tricky. But, hopefully you’ll agree, I’m getting there slowly.

Challenge #5 – Jumping into the unknown

I felt like a total fraud when I sat at my desk on the first day. I didn’t deserve to be there, there are lots of marketing graduates who would be miles better than me. I didn’t even know what inbound marketing was two weeks before I got the job. I felt like my foot was stretching out over the precipice, ready for me to go arse-over-tit any minute.

What I’ve learnt: It’s quite nice jumping off a cliff, and I don’t like heights. I’ve tried to shake off feeling like a fraud and get on with proving that I’m not one. Like I said before if a guy called Mr Strange thinks I can (and hopefully he still does) then I should probably start to believe it too.

If you open yourself up to every opportunity, you might find what you always wanted, even if you didn’t know what it was in the first place.

How does any of this crap apply to you?

If you’re not in marketing or aren’t a trainee, you’ll probably be regretting wasting ten minutes reading this. I really appreciate your effort but would ask of your indulgence for just a few words more.

The main thing that I’ve learnt in this last month is to be creative, in life as well as in work. Think outside of the box when it comes to the jobs you apply for, not just when you’re finally sitting at your new desk. Be curious, ask questions, don’t take no for an answer and have faith that your skills and good attitude will carry you through.

But, most importantly, learn how everyone likes their brew, they’ll keep you employed for that if nothing else.

My STARTUP :

Let me introduce myself. My name is Richard Nata.I am an author, novelist, blogger and ghost writer. My articles, including short stories have been published in magazines and newspapers since 1994. I have written a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction. So I was a professional in the field of writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

I was born in Jakarta, August 17, 1968.

In 1988, at the age of 20 years, I started working as an accounting staff. Age 24 years has occupied the position of Finance Manager. Age 26 years as a General Manager.

In 1994, my articles published in magazines and tabloids.

In 1997, I wrote a book entitled "Buku Pintar Mencari Kerja". This book is reprinted as much as 8 times. Through the book, the authors successfully helped tens of thousands of people get jobs at once successful in their careers. They were also successful when moving to work in other places.

In 1998, I started investing in shares on Bursa Efek Indonesia (Indonesia stock exchange). As a result of investing in the stock market then I can provide consulting services for companies that want to go public in Indonesia stock exchange.

In theory, in 10-20 years into the future, my startup income, amounting to hundreds of million USD annually can be obtained easily. AND IF FOLLOWED BY MANY COMPANIES IN THE WHOLE WORLD WILL THEN BE A NEW INDUSTRIAL worth trillions USD.

To be honest. Currently I'm not having a lot of money. So I start marketing my startup with blogspot.

My STARTUP :

A story with millions of choices in it - looking investor like you.

Try to imagine this. When you're reading a story on the web or blog, you are given two choices. You can choose the next story based on your own choice. After selecting then you can continue reading the story. Shortly afterwards you will be presented back to the 2 other options. The next choice is up to you. Then you continue the story you are reading. After that you will be faced again with 2 choices. So onwards. The more stories you read so the more options you have taken.

If you feel curious then you can re-read the story by changing your selection. Then you will see a different story with the story that you have read previously. The question now is why is this so? Because the storyline will be varying according to your choice.

I, as the author is planning to make tens of thousands of articles with millions of choices in it. With tens of thousands of articles then you like to see a show of your favorite series on TV for several years. The difference is while watching your favorite TV series, then you can not change the story. Meanwhile, if you read this story then you can alter the way the story according to your own choice.

You might say like this. Sounds like a book "choose your own adventure". Books I read when I was young.

Correctly. The idea is taken from there. But if you read through a book, the story is not so exciting. Due to the limited number of pages. When a child first you may already feel interesting. But if you re-read the book now then becomes no fun anymore because you don't get anything with the amount of 100-200 pages.

Have you ever heard of game books? When you were boy or girl, did you like reading game books? I think you've heard even happy to read it.

A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages.

Lihat preview menurut Yahoo

Bantam Books with the Choose Your Own Adventure series has produced more than 250 million USdollars. While I offer you more powerful than the Choose Your Own Adventure. Because of what? Because the story that I made much more interesting than the stories created by the authors of Bantam Books. You will not get anything just to 100-200 pages. While the story that I created is made up of tens of thousands of articles with millions of choices in it.

Based on the above, then you are faced with two choices. Are you interested in reading my story is? Or you are not interested at all. The choice is in your hands.

If you are interested then spread widely disseminated this article to your family, friends, neighbors, and relatives. You can also distribute it on facebook, twitter, goggle +, or other social media that this article be viral in the world. By doing so it is a new entertainment industry has been created.

WHY DO I NEED STARTUP FUNDS FROM INVESTORS? I NEED A LOT OF FUNDS FROM INVESTORS BECAUSE I HAVE TO LOOKING FOR EXPERT PROGRAMMERS(IT).BECAUSE THE DATA IS HANDLED IS VERY LARGE, IT MAY HAVE TO WEAR SOME PROGRAMMERS(IT).I CAN NOT WEAR SOME FREELANCE PROGRAMMER BECAUSE THE DATA MUST BE MONITORED CONTINUOUSLY FROM VIRUSES, MALWARE, SPAM, AND OTHERS.IN ADDITION FUNDS FROM INVESTORS IS ALSO USED TO BUY SERVERS WITH VERY LARGE CAPACITY. FUNDS ARE ALSO USED TO PAY EMPLOYEE SALARIES AND OPERATIONAL COSTS OF THE COMPANY.

FUNDS CAN ALSO BE USED FOR ADVERTISING AND OTHER MARKETING STRATEGIES.FUNDS CAN ALSO BE USED TO ADVERTISE MY STARTUP AND OTHER MARKETING STRATEGIES.

IF I GET A VERY LARGE FUND, THE PART OF THE FUNDS USED TO TRANSLATE THE STORY INTO VARIOUS LANGUAGES.With more and more languages, the more readers we get.

WITH MORE AND MORE READERS, THE MORE REVENUE WE GET.

AS AN INVESTOR THEN YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEEL ANXIOUS ABOUT YOUR FUNDS. BECAUSE YOUR FUNDS WILL NEVER BE LOST BECAUSE IN 3-5 YEARS YOU HAVE RETURNED THE FUNDS COUPLED WITH PROFIT.

THIS BUSINESS IS ONE AND THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD.

If we can make a good story, so that the readers will come again and again for further reading the story then our earnings will continue to grow and will never diminish. This is due to new readers who continued to arrive, while long remained loyal readers become our customers.

So that the number of our readers will continue to multiply over time. With the increasing number of loyal readership then automatically the amount of income we will also grow larger every year. The same thing happened in yahoo, google, facebook, twitter, linkedin, and others when they still startup.

Deuteronomy {28:13} And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them: ]

Try to imagine this. If I give a very unique story. It was the first time in the world. But the world already know this story even liked it. Because the world love the game books. While the story that I made is the development of game books.

Do you Believe ifI dare say if I will succeed because my story will be famous all over the world as Harry Potter?

I believe it. Not because I was the author of the story, but because of the story that I made is unique and the only one in the world.

Income from my startup :

1. Ads. With millions of unique visitors, the price of the ads will be expensive.

2. Affiliate marketing. In addition to advertising, we are also able to put up some banner from affiliate marketing.

3. Contribution of the readers. If you have a million readers and every reader to pay oneUS dollarper year then you will get the income of one million US dollars per year.

If you have a million readers and every reader to pay one US dollar per month then you will get as much revenue twelve million US dollars per year.

4. Books and Comics. After getting hundreds of thousands to the millions of readers of the story will be made in books and the form of a picture story (comics).

5. Movies. If we have a good story with millions of readers then quickly we will be offered to make a film based on the story.

6. Merchandise related to characters. After the movies there will be made an offer for the sale of goods related to the characters.

7. Sales. With millions of email that we have collected from our readers so we can sell anything to them.

Each income (1-7) worth millions to tens of millions of US dollars.

Because each income (1-7) worth millions to tens of millions of US dollars. Then in 10-20 years into the future, AI will be earning hundreds of million USD annually.

So how long do you think my story that I made could gather a thousand readers? Ten thousand readers? One hundred thousand readers? A million readers? Five million readers? Ten million readers? More than ten million readers?

But to get all of it of course takes time, can not be instant. In addition, it takes hard work, big funds and placement of the right people in the right positions.

By advertising, viral marketing, strong marketing strategies and SEO then a million readers can be done in less than a year. Ten million readers can be done in two to three years.

This is the marketing strategy of my startup.

When hundreds of thousands or millions of readers already liked my story then they have to pay to enjoy the story that I made.

If you are a visionary then you will think like this.

With the help of my great name in the world of business, my expertise in marketing, advertising, marketing by mouth, viral marketing, then collecting a million readers to ten million readers will be easy to obtain. Is not that right?

The question now is what if people like my story as they like Harry Potter? You will get tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of email addresses from readers. With that much email, we can sell anything to the readers.

Since April 2013, Wikipedia has around 26 million articles in 285 languages are written by 39 million registered users and a variety of anonymous people who are not known from other parts of the world. Web ranked by Alexa, Wikipedia is a famous website number 6 which has been visited by 12% of all Internet users with 80 million visitors every month and it is only from the calculation of America.

So do not delay. Invest your money immediately to my startup. Take A Look. There are so many advantages if you want to invest in my startup.

WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST YOUR MONEY RIGHT NOW? .

IF YOU INVEST YOUR FUNDS IN ONE, TWO OR THREE YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, YOU MAY BE TOO LATE.BECAUSE IN 1-3 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE THEN I'VE GOT THE FUNDS. THE FUNDS CAN COME FROM SOME INVESTORS, LOANS FROM BANKS OR FROM ADVERTISEMENTS POSTED ON MY BLOG.IF I'VE GOT A LARGE AMOUNT OF FUNDS THEN I'VE NO NEED OF YOUR FUNDS. SO INVEST NOW OR NOT AT ALL.

My BLOG started to be written January 11, 2015. TODAY, MAY 30, 2015, THE NUMBER OF CLICKS HAS REACHED 56,750. SO FAR SO GOOD.

If I get big funds from investors then with a quick story that I wrote will spread throughout the world.So I got acceleration because I can put ads in a large variety of media such as Google AdWords, Facebook, and others. I also can perform a variety of other marketing strategies.

If I do not get funding from investors then my story would still spread throughout the world. But with a longer time, Slow but sure.So either I get funding from investors or not, the story that I wrote will remain spread throughout the world. Ha ... 7xSo don't worry, be happy.

My advice to you is you should think whether the data that I have provided to you makes sense or not .

If my data reasonable then immediately invest your funds as soon as possible.

Then we discuss how we plan further cooperation.

Thank you.

Lord Jesus bless you.

Amen

P.S. The offer letter I gave also to the hedge funds and venture capital and other major companies in the entire world. So who is fast then he will get it.